A Veteran's Journey

Trivia Questions (Answers @ end)

1. Who said, “Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.”?
2. In what movie did we hear (and who said it), “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”?
3. In what song (and who sang it), did we hear the following:
   I still don’t know what I was looking for
   And my time was running wild
   A million dead-end streets
   Every time I thought I’d got it made

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Someone recently asked me what my favorite plane was when I was in the Navy. Not an unusual question for a Navy veteran, but it came from a young’un, probably not yet a teen. She knew I’d spent time on an aircraft carrier and she knew more about planes than I thought someone that age might know. I had to think about it for a while. Not just because it was almost fifty years ago, but because the aircraft have changed so much over the years. 

I spent four years (1973-1977) in the U.S. Navy, most of which was on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63). My job was initially Crash & Salvage—basically, an aircraft firefighter. I also spent 15 months at NAS Agana, Guam in Crash & Rescue. I’ve written several blogs about those years. After the Westpac ’75 cruise and after a year in Bremerton Shipyards, I became a Yellow Shirt director.

I loved both jobs, primarily because I was in the middle of everything on the flight deck.

Back in the 60s…

I’m a Baby Boomer, born in 1954. During my childhood years, my favorite hobby was assembling model airplane kits. J.M. Fields was a local department store “up the hill” from my house. I must’ve bought and put together every model airplane they had when I was a teen.

Jets were not common back then, but the planes I remember were the P-38 Lightning, the P-51 Mustang, the British Spitfire, F6F Hellcat, and the Sabre MK6. Most were World War II vintage, and most were fighter planes, but they all fascinated me. My two favorite model aircraft were the P-38 Lightning (because of its twin tail) and the P-51 Mustang, (because it was, in a word… badass). After I put them together, I hung them around my bedroom, like mobiles. That worked well until I grew to six feet. Then it became an obstacle course.

Such fond memories…

NAS Agana, Guam Aircraft

The Crash Barn was located on the tarmac between the Aircraft Control Tower and the base squadrons. I was in Guam from November ’73 through February ’75. Back then, there were five aircraft squadrons at NAS. These included the RA-3B Skywarrior, the EC-121 Constellation, the C-130 Hercules, the P-3 Orion, and the HU-16 Albatross. Different aircraft… different missions.

As a Crash firefighter, we needed to know about these aircraft… from a crash and rescue perspective. How many crew members might be aboard? How much fuel did each aircraft hold? The number of gear safety pins and where they were stored. Where to access the aircraft. And so on.

Each truck and crew members took turns at the aircraft “check-outs.” I’d like to think we took these exercises seriously, but I remember a few times the squadron plane captains got a little too far off the subject. But we were there for a reason.

My two favorites were the C-121 Constellation (it had a “dome” built into the top of the fuselage to navigate by the stars) and the P-3 Orion.

Fortunately, during my 15 months on Guam, the only real “dangers” we encountered were from a P-3 Orion landing and blowing a tire, an HU-16 Albatross that couldn’t lock its landing gear, and a few fuel spills from various aircraft on the base.

We were lucky.

On the Flight Deck

The flight deck was a little more crowded. After all, there were 50+ aircraft on the flight deck (another 20+ on the hangar deck), and the entire flight deck area was about 4½ acres. It was not unusual to park $30 million (back in the 70s) aircraft within a few inches of each other—yeah, tight spacing. But we knew what we were doing. The Plane Captains trusted us Yellow Shirts and vice versa.

Carrier Air Wing Squadrons

During Westpac ’75 (my one and only cruise), Kitty Hawk carried 12 squadrons of aircraft, making up what is called the Carrier Air Wing—CVW-11.

• VF-114 “Fighting Aardvarks” – F-4J Phantoms (fighter)
• VF-213 “Black Lions” – F-4J Phantoms (fighter)
• VA-192 “World Famous Golden Dragons” – A-7E Corsair II (attack)
• VA-195 “Dambusters” – A-7E Corsair II (attack)
• VA-52 “Knightriders” – A-6 Intruders (attack)
• VAQ-196 “Gauntlets” – EA-6B Prowlers (electronic warfare)
• VS-37 “Hacker Trackers” – S-2 Trackers (anti-submarine warfare)
• VS-38 “Claw Clan” – S-2 Trackers (anti-submarine warfare)
• VAW-114 “Hawgs” – E-2B Hawkeyes (early warning)
• RVAH-6 – RA-5C Vigilantes (tactical reconnaissance)
• VQ-1 “Bats” – EA-3B Skywarriors (electronic warfare)
• HS-8 “Eightballers” – SH-3D Sea Kings (anti-submarine warfare)

To most people, the above is just a “list” of old aircraft. But to me and the thousands of airdales who spent countless hours on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, each one of these aircraft had a different feeling. They all had their idiosyncrasies and I’m sure to the squadron personnel there was a different relationship.

F-4 Phantom Night Launches

Watching an F-4 Phantom launch at night with full afterburners will get your heart thumping. It’s an awesome sight, standing about 20 feet to the side (the “foul line”), we’d witness 20 feet of flames shooting out its ass for several seconds, then whoosh, it’s shot off the catapult into the night to who knows where.

When you’re standing beside an A-6 Intruder in full military power ready for launch, its thundering exhaust literally shakes your bones. Even though we had ear plugs and foam ear protectors, I still used my hands to push the foam liners closer to my ears. It was THAT loud!

E-2 Hawkeye Recovery

The E-2 Hawkeyes were prop-driven and scared the bejesus out of me, especially when landing… at night… in a storm. My “station” during flight ops recovery was next to the foul line, which was an alternating red & white stripe down the flight deck recovery angle that meant “do not cross this for any friggin’ reason.” Yet, the wingspan of the Hawkeye was almost as wide as the width of the recovery area. If the landing Hawkeye was off center by a smidge, you’d see a half dozen guys hauling ass toward the island. Yeah… that happened more than you’d think.

The A-5 Vigilantes were so long, they reminded me of a dragster (Don Garlits and Shirley Muldowney at Gatornationals). We always seemed to launch them off Cat #4, the port-most catapult on the flight deck. The Yellow Shirt would have to direct them at an angle, then turn them at the last minute to line them up on the cat. The problem was, by the time they turned the aircraft, the pilot would look down to his left and see nothing but water—his seat was far ahead of the front landing gear. But our Yellow Shirts knew what they were doing and the pilots trusted us.

A-7 Corsair Launch or Recovery

The A-7 Corsairs were probably my favorite (F-4 Phantoms & later the F-14 Tomcats would be my second favorite). Why? The A-7s had a single pilot who did it all. I thought that if one guy could fly out and do all whatever he did, manning all the controls, the radars, the weapons—you name it—then return to the ship, well… I just thought there were some gutsy guys in those outfits. I’m not saying anything negative about the other aircraft, mind you.

In fact, many times the A-7 Corsair would land, but for some unknown reason, couldn’t raise its tail hook. Because we (Crash) were alongside the Foul Line, about 20 feet away, we’d run out after he came to a stop. There was a simple hydraulic bypass switch in the starboard landing wheel well. Push it and the tail hook raised. The magic of 70s technology. It took about 2 seconds once we got there.

That, by the way, was a lot easier than A-6 Intruders who couldn’t raise their tail hooks. We’d have to run out, lay on the flight deck, and two of us push with our legs to raise the hook high enough for the V-2 gear pullers to retract the arresting wire.

Ahh… the tales of our Navy youth.

USS Ronald Reagan (CV-76)

When I was in the middle of research for my Navy memoir (Three Years, Eleven Months, & 29 Days, But Who’s Counting), I asked the Navy for three things: One, to spend some time at boot camp (Great Lakes); two, to spend time on an aircraft carrier; and three, to land and launch off a carrier. The Navy granted all three requests. They flew me out from North Island to spend a few days aboard USS Ronald Reagan. I wrote about that before in an earlier blog: “After 30+ Years, I’m Back on the Flight Deck.”

I thought I’d be able to watch launch and recovery from Vulture’s Row (an outside observation platform on the carrier’s island). But no! The Flight Deck Officer was a former ABH turned mustang. He said, “Grab a float coat and a helmet and follow me.”

Talk about a dream come true. I was truly “living the dream” again… albeit a few years older, but still being able to hang out with the Yellow Shirts & Crash Crew… Wow!

The aircraft were quite different, though, from “my days.” They still carried many of the same missions (Fighter, Bombers, Tankers, Anti-submarine, Helo Plane Guards). What struck me was the fact that most of the aircraft in the Carrier Air Wing were variations of the F-18 Hornets.

Winding Down

It doesn’t surprise me that the older aircraft have been replaced. They’re far more advanced (and yes, they cost a lot more), but the nostalgia in me often remembers the “good old days.” That’s why I often reminisce and write about some of the old times. I’m sure our fathers would probably say the same thing about aircraft in WWII versus aircraft during the Vietnam War.

I say that jokingly, because when I read some stories of the “newer” Navy veterans (those that served in the 80s & 90s), many are the same stories, just different aircraft, different ports of calls, and different shenanigans.

Yeah… we’re all Navy veterans.

Until we meet again,
Andy

Answers

1. Wayne W. Dyer.
2. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings (2001), Gandalf (Ian McKellen).
3. Changes (1971), David Bowie; written by David Bowie.

Previous blogs mentioned in this post:

• #72 — “Those” Memorable Moments, Part 2 – NAS Agana, Guam
• #59 — The Night We Foamed the Airport Runway
• #54 — Westpac ’75 Aircraft Carrier Squadrons
• #61 — There’s a Reason for the Flight Deck “Foul Line”
• #13 — After 30+ Years, I’m Back on the Flight Deck